Flor de Alcachofa

 

Summer

 

Singing the Blues

 I've read two books recently on the subject of music, but I still don't have any sense of rhythm. I can't say I''m surprised at that outcome.  However, there are dimensions to music beyond the tap - tap - tap.  I feel I have at least made some gains in historical perspective about blues and jazz traditions thanks to Blues Legacies and Black Feminism by Angela Y. Davis.

"Ma" Rainey

Davis goes near to the beginnings of the Blues story in the 1920s with Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and shortly afterward as the torch is passed on to Bessie Smith.  Davis provides a very thorough account of how the themes and forms of the Blues developed out of the daily life struggles of those performers, including the challenges of segregation and racism.  Davis' book provides a context for the period that I had not seen anywhere before.  The quality of the early recordings is not always the best, but the last half of the book contains the complete lyrics of all the songs.

 

Billie Holiday - Wikipedia

 A couple of the last chapters in Davis' book are devoted to the career of one of my long-time favorites, Billie Holiday.  While the earlier Blues performers are lauded in the book for their expressions of Black culture, language and experience, Holiday's contribution - as portrayed by Davis - was primarily a combination of courage and political conviction.  What Davis was talking about, of course, was the creation of a song from the poem by Abel Meeropol, Strange Fruit. To champion and perform a popular song about lynching was quite a gamble in 1939, but it is hard to imagine any work of art in any genre ultimately  having more social and political impact.

When I actually got around to listening to some of the early recorded performances by "Ma" Rainey and Bessie Smith I was delighted to realize that I already knew some of their songs.  It turns out that quite a few of those early Blues tunes were picked up and performed by another great favorite closer to my time, Nina Simone. There is also a clear parallel from Holiday to Simone in the latter's 1964 composition and recording of Mississippi Goddam.  (Picture of Nina Simone by By Gerrit de Bruin - in Wikipedia)

Sunday at the Museum

 

Lock 'em Up?

wikipedia

A picture of ex-congressman Robert Menendez about to begin his eleven-year imprisonment got me thinking again about the desired and actual value of incarceration.  I'm sure such penalties do make politicians more careful in how they subvert the law, but it seems pretty clear the threat is not really effective as a deterrent.

Our local DA has been harping lately on the need for accountability to discourage criminal activity, including gun violence committed by teenagers.  I would suggest that locking up children is of no use whatsoever.  The issue with teenagers and a lot of immature adults is largely one of impulse control.  That kind of personality deficit is immune to anything short of immediate consequences. Publicizing the idea that violent acts might result in getting caught and suffering legal retribution has all the deterrent impact of a mosquito bite.

Meanwhile, the eleven-year sentence handed down to Menendez is going the have the primary result of costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands.  It seems to me that a more effective strategy would be to put the congressman to work doing useful tasks in the community like street cleaning, perhaps in a striped uniform.  (And, just a year or two of that might suffice.) Of course, there would still be a cost in regard to compliance and security, but at least taxpayers would be getting something tangible for their money.

--------------

Ex-Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner given house arrest (Aljazera)

Prison abolition movement in the United States (wikipedia)

The June 14 Protests

 A very good analysis of the extent and significance of the No Kings protests is at Jacobin.

Getty Images

I think that one thing the demonstrations point to is that, in a country where a rather small percentage of the eligible voters bother to cast a ballot, the winner will be the candidate that turns out the most voters, regardless of majority sentiments.

Trump is certainly providing a lot of motivation.  We'll see if that motivation is maintained among the democracy defenders.  The mid-terms will be a good test in terms of both the voter turnout, as well as the extent to which members of Congress are paying attention.

Mantis

 I found this little Praying Mantis on my desk this evening.

I thought at first that it had a bit of lint caught on its tail.  On looking at a closer shot it seemed he had just crawled out of his skin as he grew too big for it.

Nice to see this little guy.  I thought maybe they had all been poisoned by the neighborhood exterminator.  I'm hoping he has a taste for ants.

My New Trike

 When I first tried out this three-wheeler I was surprised to find I could not seem to steer it.  When I put pressure on the peddles the thing just wanted to turn sharply.  It baffled me as I had been riding bicycles all my life until I started falling off because of weakness due to tendon injuries.

I found a youtube video of a fellow demonstrating how to ride.  I saw that he had a very upright posture and he was steering with just two fingers.  That encouraged me to try again following his example.  I also found that pushing the handlebar on the side opposite the desired turn direction was a better technique.  Once I was able to get myself up and down the street, the process began to seem more natural and intuitive.

 The Old Trike

I played around with 3D drawing programs about twenty years ago and one of my first efforts was to reconstruct my memory of my first trike in the mid-1940s.  I don't recall any difficulty in learning to ride this one.  Kids seem to take to the task with no problem.

Happy trails!

Déjà vu

 In rhe 1930s in Germany immigrants from eastern Europe, mostly Jews, were seen as economic and criminal threats.  They were rounded up and confined to detention camps.  Some brave souls sheltered and hid a few, but in the end millions were murdered.

It surprises me that so many people seem to fail to see the parallel.

---------------------------

We are witnessing the first stages of a Trump police state

Robert Reich in The Guardian

Green

 We took the dog for a walk at the river this morning.  The riverside forest is bursting with growth, due in part to some unusually heavy rains for this time of year.

There are mulberries ready to eat,  I'm sure I'll find plenty of blooming yerba mansa, and maybe some wolfberries, next time I walk further south along the river.

It seems that a similar pattern of storms have appeared all across the country.  We have experienced only brief and localized flooding, along with one death in a flood control arroyo.

I don't think the current weather pattern indicates any respite from climate change.  It seems more likely that we are just seeing examples of increasing frequency of weather extremes.

Trump is methodically dismantling any efforts to control the production of greenhouse gases and even destroying the key resources for monitoring weather and climate.  There is some pushback even among Republicans to defunding sustainable energy projects, but it seems quite possible that adverse climate change could be irreversible by the time we have put Trump behind us.

A Long Journey to Fajitas

 

The Immigrant Experience

Something to Declare by Julia Alvarez is a series of articles and essays about adapting to a new culture and a new language after fleeing to the U.S.  to escape an imminent threat in the Dominican Republic which was then ruled by a dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.  As I wrote here before, I have long been a enthusiastic follower of Alvarez's writing. It has always seemed amazing to me that someone could arrive here as a child with only a rudimentary grasp of English and end up being recognized as one of the greats among contemporary authors writing in English.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins is a novel about the flight from horrific violence which has driven so many Mexicans to seek refuge in the United States.  The author spent four years researching and writing the story of how a mother and her young son traverse the length of Mexico overland while under constant threat from cartel gangsters and the often corrupt and equally violent police. Much of the vertiginous journey is on top of railcars of north-bound trains referred to as La Bestia. The final leg is under the guidance of human traffickers through the unforgiving Sonoran Desert which has claimed countless migrant lives.

Dreaming of Home by Cristina Jimenez tells the story of being brought to the U.S. as a child by her parents who were fleeing violence and a chaotic economy in Ecuador.  Jimenez recounts the trauma of growing up in a country in which she felt unwanted and in constant fear of deportation due to a lack of documentation.  Eventually, fellow students and teachers helped her toward the courage to speak out about the fundamental human rights due to her and her generation of young immigrants.  She is Co-Founder and former Executive Director of  United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country, and she is currently a Distinguished Lecturer with the City College of New York’s Colin Powell School and a co-instructor with Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. Jimenez was instrumental in United We Dream’s successful campaign for President Obama to sign Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) into law.

Growing Up

 During my first two years at the University of Washington  Dwight Eisenhower was still President.  He had led the defeat of Fascism in Europe, presided over a booming post-war economy during his two terms,  and fired MacArthur before the General could drop an A-bomb on North Korea.  My stepfather, who had served in the Pacific, supported Eisenhower's candidacy, as did my mother, whose first husband had perished in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. I recall wearing an "I Like Ike" button, but I really only had a sketchy view of the issues then.

Being a Land Grant College, the UW was required to offer mandatory R.O.T.C. (Reserve Officer Training Corps) courses which were mandatory for the first two years in school for every male student. We learned some elementary military procedures including map reading, and we marched in a gym building once weekly wearing WWII-era uniforms and shouldering M1 rifles.  I was conflicted about the experience.  The uniform was the same my father had worn and I respected his sacrifice. At the same time I disliked having to walk around the campus wearing the uniform and I resented the requirement to submit to the authority of the military drill instructors.

The end of the school year was marked by a brief R.O.T.C. parade and an assembly of the uniformed students in the Quad. As we lined up in for the final speeches, a loudspeaker smuggled into the top floor of one of the nearby buildings began blaring out the lyrics of the Mickey Mouse theme song: M-I-C-K-E-Y...  It was only mildly humiliating as I was faceless in the uniformed crowd.  I vaguely understood and appreciated the anti-authoritarian message.  I remember thinking that the protestors had shown some courage in challenging the event.  I don't recall hearing anything about penalties being exacted against them.

In spite of some innate skepticism about the wielding of political and military power, I bought into much of the country's foreign policies over the next five years. That loyalty eroded as the war effort started by Eisenhower and intensified by Kennedy against the Vietnamese people heated up.  In the end, I joined the marches against the war and I cheered when Lyndon Johnson resigned as the country became ungovernable.

It seemed for a time under Kennedy, and more so under Obama, that there was reason for some optimism that the country was outgrowing racism, misogyny and  xenophobia. That was clearly delusional, so it seems now that we really need MICKEY again. *

----------------------

* Jacinda Ardern might do.

Don't forget to celebrate on June 14th !

Sing along

Bugs

 There is a great series running on PBS right now, Bugs That Rule the World.  The first episode I watched featured dragonflies and the Preying Mantis, a species I've always enjoyed meeting up with.  I haven't seen any for a while now, and I think I may know why.

A fellow knocked on my door recently to propose exterminating troublesome insects.  He offered to kill all the ants and spiders inside and outside my house, and pointed up the street indicating other customers in the neighborhood.

While we do have some difficulties with the legion of tiny ants that live in the walls of our old house, I feel like we can deal with that without resorting to massively lethal measures.  Taking care to keep our counters clear of crumbs or other ant attractors minimizes the problem.  The black widow spiders we used to see around the house foundation never tried to come inside, and they were clearly helping to keep bug infestations in check.

So I'm hoping a lot of people will tune into the PBS series and start to appreciate the crucial role bugs play in the community of living things.

 

The Library

 This morning we visited a very fine exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum about the history of the Albuquerque Special Collections Library, Open to All: A Century of Access at the Special Collections Library.

Photo courtesy of the Albuquerque Museum

 

There is also a Youtube documentary (which includes an interview of Joe Van Cleave!)

The Spanish/Pueblo Revival style building was originally the main and only library in town for many years.  It now houses a non-circulating collection of books and artifacts including a collection of antique printing machinery.

The exhibit got me to thinking about how central to my life libraries have been everywhere I have lived.  My first library experience was visits by the local branch librarian to my West Seattle elementary school. She made presentations about the latest additions to the collection of children's books which always seemed very exciting to me.  I was always motivated to go immediately to the library to read the reviewed books.

Mr. Popper's Penguins was one of the books I recall first hearing about from the visiting librarian.  It seemed a great adventure story about charming animals at the time.  Looking back on it now, I am appalled by the idea of taking wild animals out of their natural environment to be household pets or circus performers.

Another book from those early days was the fictional tale of several children who escape the Japanese invasion of their island home using a sailboat.  The idea that children close to my age could play a heroic role in the recently concluded war was very captivating. I have tried several times to find that book over the years, but can't recall the book title and have been unable to track it down with search descriptions.

My elementary school had its own library as well, and from it I was able to read about Roy Chapman Andrews' life as an explorer in Mongolia. That book proved very influential in my life, motivating me to seek adventure in exotic locations.

These days, my library visits are most often to the Los Griegos branch of the Albuquerque Public Library.  There is a good collection of books there and a welcoming atmosphere.  A few years ago the branch manager, Nicholas Newlin, was very helpful to our New Mexico Film Photographers group in organizing a photo exhibit at the library.

 NM Film Photographers Exhibit -- Los Griegos Library, 2020

While I enjoy the opportunity to browse the book shelves at Los Griegos or the other branch libraries in town, I more often borrow Kindle books online through the library website. That is an especially nice option for me as much of my reading is of Spanish language novels.  Since Spanish is my second language I often want to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words, and that just requires a single click on the word when I am reading with Kindle. 

So the way I interact with libraries has undergone some changes over the years, but it is no less important to me now than it was when I was first hearing about new books to read from that Seattle librarian.

---------------------------

* See also on PBS/Independent Lens

Free For ALL: The Public Library
How public libraries shaped a nation and remain a beloved sanctuary for Americans today.

Truth 1, Trump 0

 So Trump has put on another of his White House dog and pony shows in an attempt to humiliate another leader of an allied country with transparent lies.  Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, responded with facts and unflappable dignity, making Trump look the fool.

Cyril Ramaphosa (Wikipedia)

* A check of Trump's false claims about white genocide in South Africa (REUTERS)

Thinking About Flying

There may be a job more stressful than that of air traffic controllers, but it is hard to imagine what that might be.  How are people motivated to take on such work in places like Newark or Washington D.C.?

Those are questions currently on the desk of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.  He has proposed a massive reconstruction and modernization of the air traffic control system.  That is a process that will take at least four years, provided that the necessary billions are made available.

Trump, of course, places the blame for the currently disastrous state of the system on the Biden administration. Unmentioned is that fact that the proposal of Biden's transport secretary, Buttigieg, to massively invest in rebuilding the system was torpedoed by congressional Republicans.

It is also worthwhile to look back to the opportunity that was lost in 1981 when Ronald Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers who had struck for better working conditions. Reagan brought in active military controllers as strike breakers, and did an expert PR job of manipulating media accounts to minimize concerns then about controller job stress. That effectively set the pattern for the subsequent twenty-year development of failed policy and performance.

Duffy, to his credit, cut short the DOGE initiative to include controllers in their firing spree, but the subsequent loss of FAA analysts and support staff cannot be without consequences.  That shortsightedness seems due in part to overwhelming emphasis on equipment upgrades while continuing to minimize the centrality of human preparedness and performance.

* A Newark air traffic controller on how it felt when systems went dark (NPR)

Damage Assessment

A lot of media attention was given to the Signalgate incident where it was revealed that top Administration officials were using an unofficial and  possibly insecure chat service to discuss ongoing operations. So far, the only casualty has been the meeting organizer, Mike Waltz, and he has only been shuffled off to the walking wounded job of UN ambassador.

Larger issues of national security vulnerability have gone under the radar.  A recent nytimes article gives some hints at what might be usefully considered:

"... The C.I.A. plans to cut more than 1,000 staff positions through attrition over the next few years as the Trump administration shrinks the federal government..."

"... A spokeswoman for the agency did not directly confirm the plan to reduce its size but said in a statement that John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, was 'moving swiftly; to ensure that its work force was responsive to the administration’s national security priorities.'..."

Perhaps we should be reassured that the administration has taken time to set some priorities, though the possibility that those priorities might actually pertain to security seems a little remote.

Cutting a thousand jobs from something as complicated as the intelligence establishment presents some obvious threats to performance and efficiency.  However, of even more concern is the immediate outcome of the staff cuts, which is that there will be a multitude of former analysts and operatives out looking for jobs.

It is a good bet that those job-hunters' resumes - complete with pictures - are even now flooding the internet and sparking the interest of corporate recruiters.  You can also be sure that those hungry, often disgruntled former agency staffers will come under scrutiny by the foreign intelligence agencies of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. All of whom, of course, have massive capabilities for online surveillance, and plenty of expertise in the cultivation of double agents.
 

As irritated as those job hunters might be at the course of events, the vast majority are patriots, and have no doubt received special training to alert them to possible threats. Still, it is not inconceivable that one out of that thousand might be tempted by an opportunity for retribution and enrichment.  And, after all, that has happened before.

It might be argued that the people let go have been severed from ongoing operations, but of course they took a lot of knowledge with them, and many friendships will continue with active agency staff. 

So, recognizing the potential for damage, what might be done?  Having dealt itself a crippling blow, the agencies are ill prepared to keep an eye on where all the discards go.  Probably the most effective and economical strategy would be just to hire them all back.

Big Pharma - Big Bucks

 The best dissection of Big Pharma I have come across is the recent article by David Armstrong at ProPublica, 

In The Price of Remission Armstrong uses his own experience with cancer treatment as a starting point for explaining the complexities of drug development and the exploitation of human misery to make stratospheric profits.

The implications of how RFK Jr. and the DOGE team will make things even worse are not directly dealt with in the article, but they are easily deduced.

It is also worth noting that Big Pharma contributions to politicians are nearly equally divided between the two major parties, with the Republicans having only a slight edge.

At the Museum

 Two big exhibits at either end of the Albuquerque Museum.

Light, Space, and the Shape of Time

April 5 - July 20, 2025

 

Plastic, glass and neon with a '60s vibe.  I am not very moved by these kinds of large, abstract sculpture installations.  The show did not live up to its rather pretentious title.  I thought the most interesting and fun piece was the one featured at the entrance to the gift shop.

 

Focus on Youth

May 3 – June 1, 2025

A big photography show by Albuquerque public school students with lots of polished, inspiring work that is as good or better than what can be found in art gallerys around town.

 

Trevor Martinez, Guitar Highlights, Sandia High School, Grade 12

Mayday Mayday Mayday

 An early futurist take on the development of artificial intelligence was that it would replace the need for human labor and usher in an age of leisure for everyone.  At this point the effects on job availability are uncertain, but the rosy glow of the early predictions is fading fast.

For a more realistic view it is worth looking at how things have developed in the social media industry.  In that trillion-dollar undertaking the tangible benefits have gone overwhelmingly to the billionaire class.  Useful, objective news has been subverted by an avalanche of lies and conspiracy theories. The early promise of the internet to empower ordinary people has been undermined by kowtowing to authoritarianism.

Resistance is still possible.  There is still access available to independent initiatives, online and offline. The time to speak up and to act is now.

***

Tyrants like Trump always fall – and we can already predict how he will be dethroned

Simon Tisdall in The Guardian

No Access

 What happened when Representative Melanie Stansbury visited the Albuquerque Social Security Office to see how staff and budget cuts were affecting her constituents.

                                  __________________________

"At least 40 Field Offices across the country report that these staffing reductions result in the loss of more than a quarter of their staff. This means longer wait times for appointments and longer lines once people arrive.

That’s why I visited the Social Security office in Albuquerque to conduct oversight and find out more about what is going on. We were denied entry past the waiting room and instead given a generic phone number in another state to schedule a meeting. Folks, this was AFTER our already scheduled meeting was cancelled last minute for no good reason. Here’s what I was able to uncover: staffing is down by over half, computer systems have been crashing, call times have more than doubled, it is taking days for members of our communities to reach anyone who can answer questions, and people are now being forced to come in person and can’t get appointments for months out to get their issues resolved around the country.

These impacts are hurting real people, including our seniors, people living with disabilities, and survivors. As the Ranking Member of the DOGE Subcommittee on Oversight, it is my job to get to the bottom of this. Hands off Social Security! "
 

Fifty Years

 It seemed like the Viet Nam war would never end.  When it finally did I could hardly believe it.

How Photography From the Vietnam War Changed America (New York Times)

Kyoichi Sawada/Bettmann/Corbis, via Getty Images

At The Ponderosa

Our favorite nearby brew pub.  We nearly always order fish and chips.
 

Margaret gets a glass of Kölsch.  I like the Ripsaw Red.

Something to Declare

An online search failed to turn up anything interesting to read, so I started poking around in my book shelves.  I found a copy of Something to Declare by Julia Alvarez that I had somehow never read.  That was a surprise because she is one of my favorites and I have read most of what she has written.

The book is a collection of short articles and essays written over a period of years about the author's experiences as an immigrant to the U.S.  She recounts her early childhood in the Dominican Republic within a large and prosperous family, including her three sisters. Her father was a doctor and her beloved grandfather a cultural affairs delegate to the United Nations. What soon became obvious was that status and wealth were no barriers to the scrutiny of the dictator Trujillo's secret police.

The family's vulnerability was increased by the fact that Alvarez's father owned a prohibited firearm and he was a participant in the clandestine resistance to the dictatorship. When a secret police vehicle started blocking their driveway at night it was clear that the time had come to escape the island.  

Permission to travel to the United States was narrowly obtained on the pretext of advanced surgical studies by the father.  The family's wealth and connections allowed them to fly to New York where they found asylum, and thus began Julia's challenge of learning to navigate a new culture and a new language. Her long list of well-received books in her adopted language is a testament to her arduous but successful journey.  

Alternative Approaches to Tariffs

As Trump's devastation of the economy progresses it is worthwhile considering what a thoughtful use of tariffs might look like.  Zyphyr Teachout's latest column in The Nation explores that idea, with dissections of both the MAGA and the neoliberal Democrat strategies.

"Trump’s chaotic, personalized trade agenda is certainly extreme. But so is the opposite vision: tariff abolition, with no guardrails, no democratic planning, and no strategy. Real industrial policy—the kind that builds capacity, disperses power, and supports workers—lives between those extremes. That’s the tradition we should be reclaiming."

Read:

 Trade, Monopoly, and the Fight We Can’t Let Trump Define

Trump's Tariffs Policy Explained

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Planet of the Apes

 It seems every generation of Americans have to relearn the lessons of the past about the irrational fear of the other. 

The task is always made more difficult by systematic efforts to obscure and rewrite well documented accounts of previous intolerance such as we see now being conducted by the Trump administration.

Fortunately, there are still many easily accessed resources for learning and teaching about irrational and destructive prejudice.  One very good one is the non-profit densho.org which got its start twenty-five years ago in Bellevue, Washington.  The area's Japanese-American community drew on its own experience with WWII internment as inspiration to put together a thorough multi-media effort to create a fact-based tool-set for combating intolerance.

While the primary focus of Densho is based on the personal history accounts of the Japanese-American community, the website also provides a good overview of the many versions of intolerance which have plagued the country.  The highlights of the story are told very nicely in the short film, "Other": A brief history of American xenophobia.

Worth A Look

The rise of end times fascism
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
 

 The two authors have gone to the trouble of delineating the unifying philosophy of the far right elite. It's fundamental properties are a fear of regulation that puts limits on massive wealth acquisition, and the construction of refuges from the apocalyptic future which they are responsible for facilitating.

Clueless

 From the way that the tariffs were rolled out it is clear that Trump really has no clue about the economic effects of his actions or how to manage the process. However, that is not a barrier to the objectives of the 2025 Project.  The chaos created by Trump's flailing executive orders creates a climate which facilitates the destruction of the institutions of government as specified in the Heritage Foundation publications which lay out the Project 2025 agenda.

A good example of how the 2025 authors are now manipulating the process is the recent modification of the tariffs to exempt smart phones and computers from the tariffs.  That is likely to be enough to quell the alarm among the Trump base that depends on social media for its news. Trump clearly lacks the analytic capacity to make that kind of course adjustment, but he is the perfect conduit for those close to him who pull his strings.

 

A Message for Elon

 Listen to Khawuleza -

Miriam Makeba at Wikipedia

Romance sonámbulo

© mike connealy

Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
y el caballo en la montaña.
Con la sombra en la cintura
ella sueña en su baranda
verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Bajo la luna gitana,
las cosas la están mirando
y ella no puede mirarlas.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Grandes estrellas de escarcha,
vienen con el pez de sombra
que abre el camino del alba.
La higuera frota su viento
con la lija de sus ramas,
y el monte, gato garduño,
eriza sus pitas agrias.
¿Pero quién vendrá? ¿Y por dónde...?
Ella sigue en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
soñando en la mar amarga.
. . .
Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
y el caballo en la montaña.

---

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)

What Next?

 A couple thousand people showed up for the Hands Off protest in Albuquerque's Civic Center.  Speakers included Mayor Tim Keller, ex-Interior Secretary and Gov. canditate Deb Haaland and 95-year-old Dolores Huerta.  There were apparently similar demonstrations all over the country.

So, what is the Republican plan going forward?  Chaos is the most predicable course.  The economic downturn from Trump's tariffs seems inevitable, and that portends a retaking of the House and Senate by the Democrats.  However, two years is clearly enough time to achieve great damage to the country's institutions given how much Trump has already done.

None of the above signals a setback for the 2025 agenda which already includes a large component of election process destruction.  An intensification of that effort can be expected, along with a step-up of the attack on the authority of the courts and constitutional protections.

The Democrats will try to reconstitute their base.  Cory Booker has put himself into the Presidential race in four years -- if there will be one

Pictures from NPR

Pictures from The Guardian 

Amateur Hour

 Revelations about the use of the Signal chat app by Hegseth and other high-level security officials is a good example of what results from putting unqualified people into positions of authority over critical missions.

Trump characterized the incident as a "glitch".  What happens when a similar glitch shows up in the management of nuclear weapons during a crisis?

What other insecure and unauthorized platforms are used by the people involved in the Signal incident?

What was the purpose behind inviting the Editor of The Atlantic magazine to join the conversation on Signal?

There are a lot of questions that need answers.

For an overview of the incident see the opinion piece in the NY Times by former JAG lawyer David French, The Worst Part of Pete Hegseth’s Group Chat Debacle.

Barbra

I had scanned the books in half a dozen library aisles when I was surprised to come across Barbra Streisand's autobiography, My Name is Barbra. I had read a couple reviews, so I decided to check out the book.

I remember when I first became aware of Barbra Streisand's appearance in the media in 1960s New York.  My girlfriend at the time - also born with the name Barbara and also from Brooklyn - dismissed Streisand as just another singer among many ambitious little Jewish girls from Brooklyn at the time.  That turned out to be quite an underestimation.

I was never a fan of the kind of Broadway-style songs that Streisand favored and being essentially amusical I found it easy to ignore her career for sixty years until I came across her book. After reading the book I now count myself a fan, more for her writing than her singing perhaps, though I have now taken the time to actually see and appreciate some of her performances online.

In the book's 970 pages Streisand tells a really captivating story of talent, crativity and tenacity, and she does so with a very east-to-read, conversational writing style. She spent ten years pulling together the story from her journals, detailing her early successes as a singer and the achievement of her dream of becoming an actor, and then moving on to being a writer, producer and director of films.  Along the way she meets and often works with every famous person you ever heard of.

Among the performances I found on Youtube, the one I liked best was from the live concert in Anaheim in July 1994. In that she sings many of the songs she talks about in her book.

Misguided Liberties

 I saw recently that The Nation has brought a new voice to its lineup of columnists, that of Zephyr Teachout.  Her most recent column asserts convincingly that "America Needs a New Free Speech Movement".  In the process of that article she presents some relevant omissions in the '60's understanding of the issues as well as some misguided policies of the American Civil Liberties Union, which I formerly supported without reservations.

For instance, she points out that the ACLU "has repeatedly filed briefs on behalf of Big Tech, defending Silicon Valley’s freedom to act as unaccountable monopolists, claiming that the state has no right to regulate the design of big tech, even if that regulation would make it more content-neutral."

Even more shocking to me: The ACLU "was also a strong supporter of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, filing a brief stating that corporations should have the right to spend unlimited money in elections."  That is certainly out of step with an informed understanding of the roll of money in politics, and a guarantee that the ACLU will get no more support from me in the absence of a clear course correction.

Nature

   The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science is just a couple blocks from our house in Albuquerque.  I go there often on Wednesdays as admission is free then for old guys.  There is quite a variety of exhibits and programs including a celestial observatory.  I always stop by the windowed workshop where the preparators are patiently chipping away rock to reveal the fossilized remains of ancient creatures. 

Another favorite stop is the room devoted to small native animals including live snakes, fish,spiders,and turtles, some of which can be handled by visitors with the help of museum volunteers.

Cate and a beaver

    For several months a sign on the door says that the live animal facility is "temporarily closed".  The room lights are off, but it appears the animal exhibits are being maintained.  I suspect the delay in reopening the live animal exhibit is due to the need to devote a large amount of resources to a new chronologically organized exhibit of fossils found in New Mexico.  Also, the biologist who oversaw the live exhibit retired some time ago and has not been replaced.

    All of the above suggests to me that there is a need to review the priorities of the State-owned institution.  The space devoted to fossils, geology and space exploration dwarfs the size of the exhibit of present day animal life, which to me really seems a more important educational component of natural history. The emphasis on exhibits featuring dinosaurs very likely is important in attracting children and their parents to the museum, but the overwhelming space devoted to that subject may have less to do with educational value and more to do with commercially based values in our society. That idea was suggested to me recently by an article in The Guardian by Isabel Losada, Enough with unicorns and dinosaurs – show children the magic of real, living animals instead.

Nothing New

 Trump spent nearly two hours going through his usual list of lies and distortions.  He provided no coherent plan for changing -- let alone bettering -- the economy. The stories he made up about Social Security fraud were preposterous.  He had nothing new to say about Gaza or Ukraine; which is not surprising as his recent initiatives have gone nowhere.

The biggest  howler: Trumps dramatic assertion that the era of unelected bureaucrats running the government is over, as Musk smirked from the balcony.

Trump's purpose in proposing massive tariffs has no real economic intent, but rather is aimed at creating opportunities to extract random concessions from foreign leaders which he can then claim as some kind of victory, even though the net economic effects will be negative.

See the Jacobin dissection of Trump's speech and the Democrats' response:

In Responding to Trump’s Speech, Democrats Tacked Right

See Bernie's response to Trump's speech to Congress:

Bernie Responds to Trump’s State of the Union Address

FEALTY Definition & Meaning...

a: the fidelity of a vassal or feudal tenant to his lord 

b: the obligation of such fidelity 

The vassal vowed fealty to the king.

- Merriam-Webster

Trump and Vance berated Zelenskyy in today's Whitehouse meeting because he was not exhibiting the proper amount of deference or fealty to his benefactors.  It did not seem like that was a pre-planned reaction.  It seemed like Trump was just stumbling around in his objections to having his buddy Putin characterized as an untrustworthy participant in negotiations. Vance jumped in to smooth over Trump's inarticulate sputtering.  Lost in the exchange was Trump's own objective of the meeting to establish an agreement over control of Ukrainian mineral resources as a condition of some continued support for Ukraine.

Migration As An Economic Stimulant

 U.S. border policies and their enforcement are almost wholly based on the ideas that migrants are a threat to safety and economic prosperity.  I don't expect any near-term changes in either those policies or their underlying attitudes.  However, not every country is dominated by such distortions, and it is possible to see alternatives in action elsewhere.

Spain, for instance, is outpacing the rest of Europe in regard to GDP growth, largely thanks to a thriving tourist industry staffed mostly with recent migrants to the country.  The migrants' entry into the workforce is facilitated by supportive housing and training services such as language instruction. The result has been that Spain's economic growth now exceeds that of Germany, France, Italy and England, and unemployment has fallen to its lowest level since 2008.

All of the above is nicely explained in a recent Guardian article, How Spain’s radically different approach to migration helped its economy soar.

USAID

 (via Google)

US food and medical aid to the world's poorest is still in limbo

Politico

https://www.politico.com › news › 2025/02/13 › us-foo...

4 days ago — The Trump administration exempted lifesaving assistance from its foreign aid freeze, but providers say it's still not getting through.

United Press International: Trump USAID cuts create ...

JRS USA

https://www.jrsusa.org › news › united-press-internation...

The funding is used by organizations that bring food, clean water and medical supplies to war-torn countries and countries fraught with food ...

DOGE USAID Cuts: Wasted Food, Medical Supplies Add Up

Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com › news › articles › usaid-fre...

5 days ago — There's also $10 million of emergency food supplies at risk in a South African warehouse and another $39 million of aid waiting for shipment ...

USAID Food Assistance Overview | Food for Peace

USAID (.gov)

https://www.usaid.gov › usaid-food-assistance-overview

USAID works with partners to provide life-saving food assistance to the most vulnerable around the world and reduce hunger and malnutrition.

Missing: medicine ‎| Show results with: medicine

Almost $500 million in food is at risk of spoilage after ...

CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com › MoneyWatch

6 days ago — A report from the USAID inspector general says that almost $500 million in food assistance is sitting in ports, ships and warehouses.